Backroom Deal
by xenowriter
Summary: A backroom deal puts the Nexus in an awkward position. Will Kandros' plan fail?
1. Chapter 1

BACKROOM DEAL

"Tempest successfully docked, Pathfinder," Kallo exhaled softly with a pleasant sigh. He turned his large amphibious looking eyes over to his co-pilot, Suvi.

The short hair blonde flashed him a grin. "It feels good to be back. Can't wait till we finally have a place to call home."

"What?" Kallo teased as he rose up from his seat gingerly. The plush leather didn't flinch from his form. "Give this up?"

"Maybe they will let you live in here instead of an outpost," Celeste chimed in playfully as she made her way over to the hatch. She had to agree with her Salarian pilot though. It felt great to be back. Throughout all the discord on Kadara while hunting down the Archon and learning more about Meridian, she really wanted to take a step back for a breather. Pausing at the door, she turned her head to notice that none of her fellow crewmates were making their way out yet. This made her hesitate longer. Guilt overcame her. Maybe shore leave was not the best option right now.

"Something the matter, Ryder?" Suvi's delicate voice called out to her.

Celeste bit her lip as she looked back at the science officer. "No, Suvi. Just a lot on my mind. Trying to make a plan on what to do first," she laughed light heartedly. Anyone could tell it was forced as she exited down the breezeway towards the docking bay's entrance. As she took each step, she tried to think about what all she needed to do to make her time beneficial. She really didn't want to run into Director Tann unless she needed to. The doors slid open to grant her access to the docks. The noise of chattering came from the vast open area as many species gathered from recent arrivals or taking breaks from their tasks. Keeping her head down, she kept her direction towards the station's tram that would take her over to the Hyperion. Refuge back in her old ship would be a warm welcome and she wanted to see how her brother was doing.

A pair of troubled Salarians caught her eyes over near the Culture Exchange office that was directly across from where she was. It was two males she assumed and one was a dark orange color and the other was more of an aqua. They cautiously looked around as people walked by before returning to whatever the topic was of discussion. Casting her glance to see if she would be conspicuous, Celeste nonchalantly changed her direction to head closer to the Culture Exchange office. The excuse for her being near them if they caught her lingering was that she was off to see the Angaran ambassador. Fortunately, the pair ahead had their heads faced away so they didn't notice her incoming proximity. "I don't like the idea of them being here." The orange one's voice picked up.

"I had no idea. Are they stowaways?" The aqua one scratched his head.

"You were responsible in cryo, Apik!" The orange one shouted back heatedly.

"How did they get on Ark Paarchero? Did our Pathfinder know about this?"

"They were not on the manifest, Jasarf!" Apik snapped back defensively. "Raeka's dead."

"That's convenient." The other sighed. He then turned his head to see Celeste was looking at them as she approached. He reached out and nudged his colleague and the two obviously became quiet. They gave one another weary glances as Celeste seemed to have walked past them.

Celeste didn't like where the conversation was going. It had something to do with the salarian ark she just saved and some kind of data that perhaps Raeka was hiding? She already had a pit in her stomach knowing that she chose to rescue the Krogan scouts over her. Stopping in midstride, she turned and saw their large eyes watching her. "I'm Celeste Ryder, the human pathfinder. I was the one that rescued your ark from the Kett." Walking closer, she smiled at them politely and hoped that they would grace her with whatever news they were discussing.

"Oh it was you?" Apik spoke up quickly. "Thank you. Jasarf and I were assigned to cryo. We-we were just discussing a small technical issue. None of the importance at all." He rung his hands in a nervous tick.

Celeste took quick notice. "I see…." She then shifted her attention over to his friend. "So, I mean. I can help you two. With whatever issue you have."

Jasarf looked at his friend for any indication of what to do but then shook his head. "No trouble at all. We have alerted Director Tann and he has resolved it."

"That's enough, Jasarf!" Apik hushed him harshly. He grabbed his friend's arm and pulled him away. "We have matters to attend to. Thanks again, Pathfinder!"

Celeste groaned to herself watching the puzzling Salarians walk away. "Why did I even bother?" With a huff, she made a beeline to the transport to go straight to the director's office. Their discussion troubled her mind and she needed to see what was going on. The additional task frustrated her, but it was her own fault and she knew that. How was she going to accomplish anything with the additional worlds if she was being diverted in every direction?

Jarun Tann groaned loudly to himself and rubbed the ridges of his eyes with his fingers. His head buried against the desk counter just inches away from the terminal. It was only an hour ago that he received notification from the cryo maintenance that they made an alarming discovery. Everything was running smoothly for him up to his point. Any non-critical issues on the Nexus were being handled by Kesh and their Pathfinder was really setting the groundwork for the outposts on the chosen worlds. After dealing with the turmoil of the mutiny awhile back; everything now was smooth sailing. All he had to do was to sit back and bask in his achievements.

The findings on the arriving ark did a complete three sixty. When he was told of the ship's arrival after fleeing from the kett, Tann spent hours in office writing and preparing for this epic speech. He would start off welcoming all of his salarian brethren. It was good to have more on board and less krogan. Almost would feel like home to him. He rose up from his position and nestled his back up against the soft cushion of his desk chair. "There is no way the salarian government would allow such a thing!" He blurted out angrily as he moved his eyes back to the message on his screen. "Had to be a mix up!" He felt the anger boiling in him and he took a breath to repose himself. "This is an easy fix. Keep them in cryo." A smile. "No one will want them out," He grumbled happily to himself. "Once the outposts are secure, we will send them to a more deserted one. Eladeen with those miserable krogan. Better off together…." He scowled. On one hand, the mutiny worked out in his favor. The krogan were out of cryo earlier than scheduled, yes, but he rid himself of the pestilence. Nobody could trust them anyway and if Morda had her way she would try to annex much of the station. That's all he needed…another krogan rebellion on a small enclosed space. "For their lousy self-righteous right…." He chortled. His body relaxed as the earlier tension escaped him. Somehow diverting his focus on the krogan completely eased him from the alarming news.

" _Director Tann_ ," His assistant's soft voice came through the intercom. " _The human pathfinder is here to see you_."

"That's odd….," He shifted his eyes down the steps to where Celeste was waiting for his attention. He didn't like unscheduled meetings. No planning. He felt so out of control and that is a feeling he never relished. "Send her in." He turned off his terminal and took a breath. Whatever the meeting was for was probably nothing. He hoped an update. Seeing her walk up the stairs, he rose up from his desk with an overly large smile. "Pathfinder! There you are! It is so good to see you."

Celeste was taken aback by his peculiar greeting. "Director Tann."

"Thank you again for delivering Ark Paarchero. A wonderful day for us all. I can't thank you enough." His words became bitter, "Though, I see we had to sacrifice our own pathfinder for the a few krogan…"

"It was a tough call all the way around, Director." Celeste sourly shot. She didn't like the idea of the racism that most salarians had to the krogan still.

"I can see why you sympathized to them…you have one of them on your squad. He must have threatened with some kind of violence." The salarian grumbled.

"With all due respect," Celeste gritted her teeth. She was trying her best not to punch this guy in the face. "Drack is a member of my squad and he was there, yes. However, my call _is_ my own. If you do recall as well, I do have a _salarian_ pilot on my staff as well. He was aware of the choice I made." This is why she didn't want to speak with Tann. Every visit increased her blood pressure to probably a level that Lexi did not want. She had to redirect the focus of the meeting as to why she was really there.

Tann waved his hand up in the air. "I don't have time for these arguments. I know we all have our opinion," his voice still low. "Did you have any updates for me?"

"Actually I do," Celeste sighed. The few moments of exchange already exhausted her. No wonder Kallo still felt lonely despite having Tann around before their ark was found. "I overheard two of Paachero's workers talk about some type of discovery. They said they sent the issue up to you."

If Ryder could understand any salarian curse words then she would have heard every one that Tann was silently muttering inside his head. He always kept himself restrained so no one would ever get that from him. His face twisted and he walked around her feigning to be casual. "I have handled it. I assure you."

Celeste was not moved. She crossed her arms and stared at him. "Enlighten me."

He already anticipated this and managed to concoct a deviation. "It is a security matter. Speak with Kandros if you would like but it is _not_ Pathfinder business."

"You really are doing this?" Celeste looked at him exasperated. Throwing up her hands in aggravation, she stomped down the steps. "Fine."

"Have a pleasant day!" The secretary at her desk waved as she exited.

The trip to where Kandros was located on the Nexus seemed further than usual. Celeste silently prayed that he was at his post and she wouldn't need Sam to track him down. The blue painted face Turian lifted an eye ridge at her unusual gung-ho approach. A small smile spread on his undetectable thin lips and his avian eyes looked right at her. "Let me guess. Tann."

"Don't even mention his name," Celeste groaned. "Who the hell put him in charge?"

Kandros didn't even miss a beat on a reply, "He did. Though Addison confirmed the chain of command. I don't think the Initiative planned on so many high levels being killed all at once by the scourge." He pulled out his omni-tool and activated the link between it and the console before him. Seconds later, a holo image of Havarl appeared. "Strike teams infiltrated more Remnant sites with the help of the Angaran." He tapped his omni and then the image switched over to Eos. "We are losing some ground on Eos and I don't like the odds right now especially with a new outpost." He paused and she knew that he was going to bring up the fact that she focused the outposts more on scientific research instead of military defense. One choice, he often voiced his disagreement on. His mandible flickered a little and then he continued, "I'm calling all the team leads to come up with a new strategy." She was thankful that he didn't bring it up again. It was another argument that she didn't want to get into right at the moment.

"Kandros, I'm not here for an update." Her mind flashed back to the reason why she was here. She had to remain on track or her shore leave would end quicker than she hoped and she wanted some time to spend with her brother.

The turian cleared his throat. "What is the business then?" She could tell that he was a bit offended by simply ignoring the quick update.

Celeste sighed. "I appreciate it," She apologized. "I just have a lot going on right now."

"Don't we all."

"I heard mention of a discovery on Arc Paarchero. Care to elaborate?"

Kandros' eyes studied her for a second and then he moved closer into his station and further away from the busy hallway. His voice lowered, "What did Tann tell you?"

"Nothing. He sent me to you. I overheard two salarian cryo workers arguing about finding something. They wouldn't tell me either. I assume that the kett would have scanned all the cry pods when they boarded and I didn't see anything on the flagship. So just what the hell is going on?" Her tone more serious, "Please don't send me off to someone else. I'm tired of being dragged around."

"Tann did mention it to me, but I already knew. He didn't like that."

"I thought he was supposed to know everything."

Kandros chose his words carefully. "He wants to act like he does. This was under a direct order by Jien Garson. Since it was a matter of security, the information came to me. Of course after Sloane was exiled."

"So this data," Ryder was on pins and needles. "It never reached Tann at all?"

Kandros shook his head. "None of it."

"So what is going on?"

"I can't tell you." He spoke quickly as he looked around. Celeste went to protest but he shoved a data pad in her hand. "Let's move on. Take a look at this." He gestured towards the pad with his eyes.

Celeste followed his gaze and read the report, "POD PK589 AND PK439 WILL BE ASSIGNED. JIEN GARSON." She lifted her chin back up to look at him. "I don't understand. Just looks like a manifest for assignments."

"Those two pods are not salarian," Kandros whispered. "It was a backroom deal. I'm not positive of all the details." He used his talon to swipe over to the next page. "Look here."

One word sprouted from the jumble of words. One word that all she needed to see. "BATARIANS." Her jaw dropped and she looked at up him for some sort of explanation. It didn't make any sense. On the Citadel, she never had the pleasure of running into any of the four-eyed aliens since they closed their embassy. Throughout her field trips for her studies in the Milky Way, she was lucky enough not to cross paths with them. She heard tales of those less fortunate. Slavers, mercenaries, pirates were the most descriptive terms for their trade. Not trustworthy and violent. She probably figured her dad ran into pockets of them as a N7, but he never spoke about his missions. The batarians were not a council race and probably one of the most uninvited guests for the Initiative despite for the Geth. So why would suddenly there be two?

"There's more on the Keelah Si'yah." Kandros' got so close to her that she could feel the Turian's warm breath hit her skin.

"The Quarian ark?" Andromeda shook her head. This news was opening a whole new can of worms for her. It was bad enough dealing with the kett, but now they are going to be dealing with batarians. As if the salarian and the krogan relationship was bad enough; now they would be plagued with the humans and the batarians. "So what's the plan on this?" She handed the datapad back to him.

"Tann's call. It's above my authority."

She noticed that his mandible quivered as if he was aching to ask her something. "Go ahead." One more task she had to add to her ever growing sheet.

"Tann wants them to stay in cryo."

Celeste lifted an eyebrow. "You want them out?"

Kandros squared his shoulders back in a more militaristic posture. "I hate to admit it, but our strike teams need them. They have brute strength and are resilient. It's bad enough without having the krogan around."

"They may not be willing to help. I don't know what the terms are for that deal you were talking about. They may look to us for whatever our part of the bargain was," She replied, being devil's advocate.

He nodded his head in agreement. "A risk that we should take."

"I'm heading to Eladeen and if I can convince Morda…" In her mind, dealing with the krogan may be the best route. Drack could soothe down the anger. At least she hoped he could.

"With all due respect, that will take time. Morda left the Initiative I heard on bad terms. I was on Eos when the mutiny happened. You won't be able to just walk right in there and ask for the krogan help again. Not while Tann is in charge. We don't have that kind of time."

Celeste rubbed her temples. So much for shore leave. She knew every argument that Kandros was making was true. She had a duty to make sure that planets were vital for settlements, but until they could get a solid foothold, she had to make sure the people they place were fully protected. Batarian aid could change the winds of the battle just right enough…. "Tann?" The name tiredly fell out of her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Ryder. You could make the argument to him and you have the authority to override his for cryo release."

"You owe me," Celeste grumbled. Back to Director Tann's office it was. "I should just camp out there…" She huffed under her breath as she turned to head back the direction she came. She could almost hear the turian mutter "good luck" back to her.


	2. Chapter 2

BACKROOM DEAL

PART 2

The different images of the outposts on Eos, Voeld and Kadara switched every few seconds. The faces of the colonists with a "thumbs up" were clearly posed. The many faces filled with delight. It was a far cry from reality. In reality, Tann's terminal was blowing up with messages on a daily basis from different groups on each world. They were running out of supplies, trade prices were too steep or the occasional skirmish with hostile forces. All of them were looking to him for some miracle quick fix. A lot of times he would forward some of the mediocre complaints to Kesh.

" _She's on her way back_ ," Kandros' voice came through the comm on his desk. He could almost see a smirk on the turian's face on the other end. Is this what his colleagues lived for each day? To torment him? His job was of the utmost importance!

Groaning, he defeatedly moved slowly back to his desk. "Okay, you can do this…" He closed his eyes and took a breath. Opening his eyes slowly, he focused his sights back on the imagery before him. "Divert her back to the issues at hand. Smile and remain calm." He wished for one day aboard the Nexus that he could avoid a conversation with Kesh, Addison, Kandros or the Pathfinder.

"What _are_ the issues at hand, Director?" Celeste pointedly spoke out from behind as she clambered up the steps. The tone of her voice made him cringe. Why didn't his assistant notify him? He made a mental note to reprimand her after the meeting. The red head remained frozen with her arms crossed.

Pivoting around on his heel, Tann tried to smile big but he knew that it would appear to be more forced. "Pathfinder, I see that you are back. Did Kandros answer any concerns that you may have?"

The woman before him kept her arms crossed. "There are batarians aboard Ark Paarchero. Some backroom deal that was made by the Alliance prior to lift off."

"I was clearly as shocked as you are, Ryder. This information didn't cross my desk until the ark's arrival I assure you." He interlaced his fingers together behind his back and stepped lightly down the steps to join her. "You and I both know we don't want batarians freely running around the Nexus. Think of all the problems we will have. They can't be trusted. Cryo is the best course until we deal with bigger issues."

Celeste remained quiet in thought. Tann felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders. He complimented himself mentally. Clearly, his good negotiating skills broke her down and she would be compelled to agree to his action. He decided not to stop now. "We need to neutralize the kett threat that plagues our outposts. I have received several urgent messages about unprovoked attacks from survey groups. Pathfinder, how can we effectively have our golden worlds when our loved ones are being threatened?"

"I'm glad that we agree. We need to stop the kett." Celeste uncrossed her arms with a smile. Another point!

"Then go out there and get it done, Pathfinder. We all believe in you." His voice became more upbeat. " _I_ believe in you." He reached out and gently patted her shoulder with his three-fingered hand. A more of a ceremonial gesture than anything. He was not the touchy feely type.

"Actually, I wanted to discuss my plan of strategy with you since I have your full support." Celeste took out a datapad and pulled up some data from Kandros' strike team reports. Tann was puzzled. Warfare was something he never really had any interest in. He had several friends that looked up to STG members and the sermons given by Captain Kirrahe back in the Milky Way. He never really saw the point. Numbers were more his game. Stepping closer to get a better look at the datapad, he decided to show her some interest. As she scrolled through to whatever topic of interest she was talking about, he wondered if this was something she already discussed with Kandros. Maybe, he disagreed. "Kett activity has picked up on Eos. We are losing ground with the strike teams." Celeste continued as she pulled up the data. The outpost was shown with several sectors on the perimeter. Red was keyed as hostile areas. "We need to bolster our position or we will lose Prodromus just like we did with Promise."

"What do you suggest?" In the back of his mind, Tann felt uncomfortable at where this conversation was going. Especially with Kandros' involvement.

"We need some muscle and right now the krogan are not in. These batarians could be the leverage we need. The kett won't be expecting them."

Tann turned quickly and went back to his desk. "I'm sorry, but I cannot allow this." What a prosperous idea! It was bad enough allowing Morda and clan Nakmor access to the station during the uprising and he saw what the outcome was.

"Why not?" Celeste was at his heels; the datapad waving in her hand.

"You were not here during the uprising. Morda agreed to help us and then wanted to hold the Initiative hostage to her terms. Once we wake up people, they won't go back." His mind flashed to the agonizing speeches he had to give to coax non-essential crewmembers to go back into their pods once the station was stabilized from the scourge attack. "You think the batarians will just agree to whatever we ask?"

Celeste chewed her lip. "What if we incorporate them into the populace afterwards?"

Tann narrowed his eyes. "What are you suggesting? They can't roam free around the Nexus."

"There's only two," Celeste argued.

The salarian shook his head exasperated. "Two is bad enough. Crime and violence will go up. This is why they were not allowed on the Citadel." He wanted to bury his head again. Why didn't the Alliance send Elcor instead?

"Director, this isn't the Citadel," It took all her being to remain patient with the hard nose male before her. "What if they go off the station?"

"Like?"

Celeste shrugged. "Eos. They can assist with Kandros and will be a great asset to protect the colony. We could have them assist with security measures."

Laughter escaped the salarian's mouth. This was the first time that Ryder ever heard him do such a thing. The idea was a farce to him. After all he accomplished and the promises he made to the Nexus including his own salarian kind to only be hindered by alien outcasts. "They would be better at Kadara with the exiles or on Eladeen with-"He stopped himself.

"The krogan," The woman finished his thought with a look of disdain.

Tann held up his hands defensively. "Yes, but I was going to add that they could keep an eye on them."

"I don't think Morda would really care what they did…." Celeste rubbed her face tiresomely. Not wanting to admit it, but she knew that Tann had somewhat of a point with the batarians. She ran into several scavengers that were creating a gang at the flophouse on Eladeen. She didn't want gangs to start popping up created by what she was releasing on the planet, but then again, gangs were already forming that were human centric. She was done. She had to take out the ace up her sleeve… "I talked with Addison when I first arrived on the station and she advised that Pathfinders do have authority to override cryo control if they deem necessary for the survival of the Initiative…." She paused and decided to let that statement brew into the complex salarian's mind.

This infuriated Tann and he felt himself becoming rigid as his hands balled up into fists. He shook, but used everyone ounce in him to remain restraint. He thought dealing with Sloane Kelly was bad…. "If you have the authority to do what you believe is necessary, even though is it not recommended, then why are you wasting my time?"

Now was the time to remain diplomatic. Celeste frowned at him. A small wave of guilt hit her. Maybe making the last sentence was not the greatest but she had to cut to the chase. "I do want to keep an alliance with you, Director. I just want you to know what my intentions are. I came here to seek your input on the situation."

Kandros gotten to her! He knew it. Tann made a mental note to speak with him after this exchange. Before he had a chance to reply, he saw the familiar large head of Kesh coming into view from the steps and followed close behind with Kandros. He remained guarded as he saw them approach. Was this going to be an ambush now? He hated feeling threatened. "My staff."

"Colleagues," Kesh firmly reminded him again. The female krogan's eyes moved over to Celeste Ryder. Even her appearance caught the human off-guard. Perhaps this wasn't a planned attack after all! "Kandros told me about the discovery. I highly am against it."

Tann didn't let the chance to slip away. He smiled big and approached her with welcoming arms. "I always take value in your opinion, Superintendent. I fully agree with you."

Ryder's face faltered. Apparently, the krogan's statement was in complete shock to her. "Why?"

"Despite my species' violent nature, we do have some restraint. We are dedicated to our clan. Especially when it comes to Clan Nakmor. We follow the orders of our clan leader. The batarians I have dealt with are of a different nature. It will be hard to trust them. Especially with their past."

Tiran Kandros shook his head. "We should try. You haven't been up against the kett and now we are dealing with remnant too. My men can only take so much. Without the success of the strike teams, the outposts will collapse and will be back to square one again."

Tann's smile didn't fade. "There you have it, Pathfinder. Two against one. I think the matter is now settled." He was relieved that he wouldn't have to deal with this any longer.

Tiran kept his avian eyes on Celeste. "I think our Pathfinder has a say as well."

"As do I." Another voice spoke up. All heads came forward to see Hayjer approaching.

The new salarian pathfinder's presence was shocking to Tann, but he knew he could rely on his fellow species to take his side at least. "Glad to see you. I'm sorry for our loss to our former pathfinder, Raeka."

"A pleasure as always, Director." The orange skinned male nodded his head. "I helped Raeka sneak onboard of the kett flagship after Ryder and her team. The kett were very difficult in combat and we lost too many. I never doubted Ryder's decision and it was a tough call to make."

"I know it was quite an ordeal," Tann interjected. He didn't want to lose ground on this debate. It was time to circle this back to his side. "I'm not sure if you are aware of the new concern we have. Batarians have been found in our own ark's cryopods."

"They were placed specifically by the Initiative. Only certain channels were made aware. Our former security advisor was informed and then the information was passed down to me." Kandros handed Hayjer a datapad. There was no point in hiding any information. Celeste knew that. They had to keep the trust of everyone. "They were ex-pirate and mercenary. They turned in their boss and was granted asylum by the Alliance. We need them on our strike teams. I have worked with batarians before. They are resilient. Almost as strong as the krogan."

Hayjer oddly hummed softly to himself as he used his wide fingertips to slide through the data. He turned the pad down and looked over at Celeste. "What's your opinion on this?"

"I say we give them a shot. Everyone needs to pitch in if we are going to call this home."

Hayjer then turned his head back towards Tann. "Then I'm in agreement with the Pathfinder. She's my colleague and I trust her judgment."

Tann's face broke like cheap parts sold by a Volus and he felt like his jaw was going to hit the floor. This was a move he was not prepared for at all! His quick mind was failing him. Kandros took the advantage and piped in, "I'll meet you in the cryo unit on the Paarchero."

Celeste gave a silent "thank you" smile to Hayjer and then left with a feeling of accomplishment. Once out of the director's office, she paused and called upon her personal AI, "Sam?"

" _Yes, Pathfinder_."

"Are you able to capture some of my memories too?"

" _I can recall recent moments until they are purged from my banks unless you specify particular ones to save_."

"Then save that one. I want to watch Tann's face over and over," She grinned and walked down the hallway, humming a catching tune she picked up from visiting the Vortex earlier in her travels.


	3. Chapter 3

BACKROOM DEAL

PART 3

"Hey, Ryder, hold up!" Drack called out to her. He was casually leaning up against the wall near the stairs that led to Tann's office in Operations. His attention was squarely on her previous location. Kesh. She must have said something to her grandfather prior to coming to the meeting.

"Yes, Drack?" Celeste already anticipated where the conversation may go. Kesh voiced her opinion against using the batarians on the strike teams. More than likely Drack felt the same.

"You talked to Tann?" He motioned with his head for her to follow him down the steps and out of the view from the window where the salarian's office was. She almost forgot that he could look down and see who was coming to pay him a visit.

"I did," She took a breath.

"This sure sounds like varren shit to me." His words were gruff but she knew where he was coming from. The whole idea smelt bad. Shady business was going down in the shadows of the Initiative. She could get that much of a picture after coming across couple of scavengers on Eladeen. It almost felt like the selection process was not that picky on some ends. Their predecessors set the plans in motion and it seemed all of them got off the hook for it. Now everyone in Andromeda was dealt with the bad hand and they had to make it work somehow. "The kett were all over that ark we found. How come we didn't come across any of those batarians in those test tubes like my scouts?"

"I can agree with you. It doesn't make sense. Logically, my own conclusion is that perhaps the kett just assumed that the whole place was filled with salarians. Seemed like the pods were position in with the non-essential staff. That would have given time for the security team in Andromeda to discreetly remove the pods without anyone really knowing." Celeste boarded the tram to head back to the docking bay to meet up with Kandros. She noticed that Drack didn't hesitate on following her. Taking a seat, she looked over at her compatriot for him to join her but she noticed that he was standing in place.

He noticed her bewildered look. "Old habits die hard. Don't have to go very far if we are attacked if I'm near the door."

This raised her eyebrow. "But wouldn't the intruders come through the door?"

"I'm counting on it." He flashed her a krogan grin. This got a chuckle out of her. Being around him was never a dull moment. She almost welcomed this uplifting parlay. "Look, kid. I've been some thinking on this whole batarian crap." His voice became grim. "I know Kesh told you she was against it. Believe me, I may sound old, but you don't want to mess around with those four-eyes."

"You old? Hah!" Celeste teased. She rose up from her seat as she felt the tram decelerating.

Drack's voice remained serious. "I have dealt with quite a few in skirmishes during my pirate days. It wasn't pretty. I have seen things they have done to humans that may make the kett look more like salarian scientists."

Celeste let her eyes adjust from the artificial sunlight as they walked out to the docks. She turned to see Drack tagging along beside her. The determination in his eyes was unchanged as he followed her step towards the Paarchero. This made a soft smile spread across her thin lips. It almost felt like he had a duty to protect her. The thought was moving to her. Though, she decided not to tease him about it. She welcomed all the army she could get, especially if her idea went south. After all, it was _her_ idea and Tann would make sure to remind her of that every nanosecond he got. "Kandros says his strike teams need the assist. Especially on Eos. We can't let that colony fail again. This is our last shot." The thought of using the krogan still nagged the back of her mind. "Think Morda will agree to help?"

"We are just now softening her up. I don't think she will come around just yet."

"Yeah, she still calls me 'Nexus," Celeste frowned. The word was filled with hatred as it flowed out of the female warlord's mouth. "I don't think she's too soft yet."

"Trust me. If she wasn't coming around, you would be dead." The krogan stated the obvious. Walking into New Tuchanka was rough. In Clan Nakmor's eyes, Celeste Ryder, was not the human pathfinder, but a stiff from the Nexus. Nexus period. If Drack wasn't around as a guide…..she shuddered to think of what would happen.

"Then we are out of options. This has to work." Her pace quickened as she saw the ark coming into view. A small security team had already formed outside the entranceway. Kandros at least was not taking any chances. She paused and brought up her omni-tool. "Lexi?"

" _Yes?"_ The asari doctor from the Tempest replied back seconds later.

"Can you come to Ark Paarchero and meet me in the cryo chamber? I'll give you clearance."

" _I'm on my way."_

Drack looked at her puzzled. "Why her? Don't you have your own doctor?"

"Dr. Carlyle is busy with Scott," Her voice pained by the mention of her brother's name. A firm reminder of her other duty on the Nexus. "I'm sure the salarians will have their own doctor for the monitoring process, but I want someone I can trust."

"Salarians are sneaky bastards. I don't put anything past them." Drack gave his affirmation loudly as they walked past a couple of the species they were talking about. "I just didn't know that Lexi was coming. She keeps hounding me about a check-up. I'm old that's it."

"Just feels like the other day we were on this thing battling the kett," A chill went down Celeste's body as she looked around. The place was started to look cozier. A complete opposite from her first arrival. With each ark being in similar design, the path to the cryo chamber was easy to follow. A skeleton crew was left on board to do system checks. Some stopped whatever task they were dealing with to see who their guests were, but only glanced briefly before returning to whatever they were working on. They didn't look nervous at all. She guessed they weren't told of the discovery.

Kandros and more of his men greeted Celeste and Drack as they entered the cryo chamber. They were heavily armed. Apparently, the head of the security was expecting the worse. Two pods were just ahead and surrounded by several workers who were finalizing the thawing process. An orange toned salarian with red facial markings noted their arriving and seemed a bit uneasy about it. He stood at a terminal, looking at data that was pouring in from scans, but his eyes kept darting over in Celeste's direction. Moving past Tiran Kandros, Celeste approached the salarian. "I'm Ryder. The human pathfinder." She held out her hand to greet him.

"I'm Dr. Aden," He spoke quickly, ignoring the hand as he purposefully avoided contact with her and moved over to the two pods to scan them with his omni.

Celeste looked over at her turian contact for any explanation but he shrugged in response. She then noticed Lexi walking in. She smiled at her ship's doctor. "I'm glad you can make it."

"For you always." The asari smiled warmly. She moved over to Dr. Aden. "I'm Dr. T'Perro. I'm here to assist."

"I think I can manage two," Aden snapped sharply.

Lexi blinked. "I'm sorry. I am sure you are capable of-"

"Is there something wrong, doctor?" Celeste moved around her doc. The salarian's attitude was strange.

"Nothing is wrong," He grumbled as he moved past her back to his terminal. His posture was tense as if he was on edge knowing that Ryder specifically was there. She decided to shelf this for later. She needed to get this done so she could check on Scott.

Lexi walked over to the pods and did her own scan on her device. Her eyes flickering across the data that displayed. Celeste took her side. "We all set, Lexi?

"Blood pressure a bit elevated, but not alarming. They are not self-aware yet."

A loud hiss came from the containment units as they started to slowly warm up to acceptable temperatures. It was crucial not to rush. A lot of species couldn't adapt quickly and the sudden rush could have caused cardiac arrest. The clicks of guns being cocked and ready to go could be heard in the background. The pod doors lifted open and the wet thawing out forms of the two batarian males were revealed. Their bodies twitching as their organ systems were coming back online. They were no longer in 'sleep mode.'

Dr. Aden moved in front of Lexi and scanned them again. "Heart rate increasing as suspected. Body temperature elevating to normal ranges."

A groan from one brought their attention back to the pair. It was the one on the left. His skin tone was bit of a darker brown with an old scar mark over his right eye. The shape of the scar was ragged so most likely some sort of animal attack. He was probably lucky he didn't lose the eye. His right forearm had a faded tattoo with an emblem she was not familiar with. Some sort of pirate or merc gang? It seemed as if someone tried to burn it off. The other batarian was lighter in color with two scars of battle on his arms. He had a similar tattoo on his leg but it was more predominant.

Kandros eased up beside Ryder and peered down. His face grew dark and she noticed his mandible clenched up. "Talons…"

"Pirate gang?"

"Merc group on Omega," Drack spoke up from his spot.

Celeste exhaled through her nose and she looked over at the turian. "You sure about doing this?"

"If they were with the Talons then they will be trained in combat. I need them, Ryder." His avian eyes looked directly at her.

"Where the hell am I?" The left batarian was coming to and the right one was starting to move his limbs. "Why is it so fuckin cold in here?"

"You were in cryo," Aden blatantly said. "That is normal."

"Give them some space," Celeste motioned everyone back. The next few minutes had to be delicate. Lexi gave her a worrisome look and Ryder nodded her the okay to stay where she was.

"Relax. The effects of the cryo containment will wear off I assure you. It is important that you do not move quickly at once," Her soothing voice spoke out. "Do you remember your names?"

The four eyed alien blinked at her as he slowly rose up, ignoring her instructions. He studied each of them and then saw the guns that Kandros' team were displaying. He growled, baring his sharp incisors and then nudged his friend. "Wake up, dumbass. This was a scam!"

The other sat up quickly, becoming startled. "They said we were free!"

"Easy," Lexi hushed them. "You are in the Andromeda galaxy and we are not here to harm you.

Celeste stepped forward slowly. "I apologize, but we were not aware of you being onboard to just now. Whatever deals you had in the Milky Way we do not know about. I just need you to calm down; there will be no harm to you." The batarians studied her but remained quiet. Taking another step forward, she pursued it further, "You said 'they', whom do you mean?"

"The Alliance. We turned in our boss for asylum. Didn't like the conniving bastard. Said we could come here and start over. Lots of opportunity."

"Like slavery?" Dr. Aden flatly commented.

"Creds," Eye scar corrected matter-of-factly. "I don't care how. As long I get my share."

"So if you're not the Alliance, then who the fuck are you?" His friend shifted a bit as he tried to get up from his pod. His body stumbling as his muscles were not ready for the move yet. Lexi was at his side within seconds and gingerly slipped his arm over her shoulder.

"Easy. You can't get up just yet. Let your body adapt," She gave Ryder a crisp look. "Ryder, please." Her voice filled with frustration. "I need to treat them."

"We need to keep them isolated," Kandros shook his head. "Until we can get them to agree."

"Agree to what?" The first batarian was trying to get his muscles moving as well.

"Let's just start over," Ryder held up her hand to stop him. "I'm Ryder. The human pathfinder for the Initiative. The Alliance is not here. They were left back in the Milky Way. You are about six hundred light years away. Can you please tell us your names and how you joined up? I apologize, but somehow they missed you so it's a shock to us."

The four-eyed alien stared at her wordlessly for a moment. He then looked over at Kandros once more. Celeste held her breath. She really hoped that this wouldn't end in a firefight. "I'm Drokira Krec'donrek. He's Ralea Drackarok."

Finally allowing herself to continue breathing, Celeste flashed him a tooth full smile. "Nice to meet you both. Any family back home?"

Drokira paused and she figured he was going to remain tight lip on any further but he surprised her. "I had a wife named Pacor Fapfalok. I was originally from Aratoht. My wife is still there. I was in enforcement, but the work was tough and hard. Didn't get many days off so I left around 2183."

"And your work with the Talons?" Kandros pointedly asked as he jerked his head towards the still visible tat.

Drokira scoffed. "Saw that didn't you? Tried to get the damn thing off. I dabbled with them on Omega. Trained me for assault missions. Mostly against rival gangs. Aria would never step in and we were losing territory. The Suns and Eclipse took most of the best paying jobs. Around 2184 I left there and joined up with the pirate gang called the 'Outlaws.' Ran by humans. What a dumb name."

"Humans are not really creative." Drack huffed as he listened in with his arms crossed. "They have a group here too called that."

"I found Ralea there. We had a good run for a while. Attacking mostly passenger shuttles. But the boss got greedy. Cut back on our pay even though he was making a killing. One day he made the mistake of taking down an Alliance shuttle and massacring the officers. That brought them in. They were on us like Vorcha to a piece of meat. They put a bounty on all of our heads. The ports were becoming too unsafe."

"We contacted the Alliance to broker a deal. We give them our boss and they grant us an asylum." Ralea piped in as he finally got his muscles strong enough to stand up with Lexi's support.

"They told us that a woman named Jien Garson was leading this gig." Drokira looked back over at Celeste as he tried to stand up as well. His legs wobbling.

Celeste moved quickly over to keep him steady as Drokira continued to get out of the pod altogether. "Jien is dead. She was killed by the scourge when we arrived here." She gritted her teeth as she felt his weight pushing onto her as she helped him. So far things were going smoother than planned, but she wasn't too sure if she should get down to business now or not. Keeping rapport with these guys was key. Once she could see that he was good on his own, she slowly backed away. "Did you ever get to contact your wife before you went into cryo?"

Drokira remained withdrawn and barked, "Why would a human care?"

"Because maybe I do," Celeste sized him up and kept her eyes on him. It was hard to talk to them because of their extra pair of eyes. She didn't know which set to look at.

"I sent her a message right before cryo with a few creds from my deal." He shrugged haphazardly.

"I'm going to have Dr. T'Perro here examine you and make sure there were no side effects from stasis. Would that be alright?"

"Then we are free to leave?" Ralea countered.

"Ryder…" Kandros' voice rose up in alarm.

Celeste knew the idea of two batarians just walking around the Nexus would not go well with Tann and many habitants of the station would become very cross with just the idea. She had to do this tactfully now. The further they were from cryo, the less likely they could get them back into stasis if they couldn't broker a deal. "Look, Drokira, Ralea. I don't know what crimes you may have committed in the past other than what you disclosed to me. Frankly, right now, I don't care. What I do know is that we are in need of your help. Your expertise and training could really give us the advantage that we need."

"What about our payment? Where do we stay?" Drokira cracked his neck loudly.

Ryder felt Tiran pushing past her to take control of the situation. Her time was up. She cringed, seeing his back now to her. "My men need you on our strike teams on Eos. We are losing against the kett and our outpost will suffer the consequences. You will be paid and I can find accommodations."

"Don't trust them. It wasn't part of the deal," Ralea murmured over to his friend.

Drokira paused and stared right at Celeste. His dark eyes analyzing her facial expression. "We did our part. No more deals. We're not staying on this ship. Wherever we are. Provide us transportation."

"For fuck's sake…." Kandros muttered hotly under his breath. He stiffened his posture and glanced back at his counterparts.

Celeste's eyes went wide as she followed his intent. The batarians were going to be ordered with or without 'help' to go back into cryo. She had to act fast! "What about Eos?" The question blurted out so rapidly that she didn't even know what she was doing. The entire situation was playing out so hastily that she couldn't keep up. She mastered getting angaran aid. A non-Milky Way race that they had no data on, but brokering a deal with batarians was going nowhere. She had seen the devastation at Promise and Resilience. The hope that colonists had were now particles of sand. She didn't want Prodromus to have the same fate.

"We already said we are not helping!" Ralea snapped angrily. He shoved Lexi away.

"Not to help," Ryder perked up. She made sure to speak slowly and softly. She had to keep control of the situation if she was going to make this work. "We have an old station there named Promise. It's deserted. Several miles away from Prodromus. No one from the Initiative will bother you there. I will make sure of it. A shuttle will be given to drop you off only and supplies."

She struck a nerve with Kandros. A growl escaped his throat and he pulled her back to him. "We need every supply we can get. There's salvage there that we haven't collected. We can't send them there." His bony head was just inches away from her face. His talons squeezed around her arm tightly.

Ryder felt like she knew what she was doing, but now the turian's protest put her in an awkward situation. She wanted him to trust her to see how this would play out. Her blue eyes peered over his shoulder to see Drack standing there looking on with his arms crossed. " _Thanks for the assist…."_ She muttered to herself. Was the krogan testing her? She had to remain calm. Getting the batarians on their side was crucial right now. Especially for the viability for Eos and the rest of the Andromeda galaxy. A little bit of reverse psychology may do the trick. Her hand rested gently on Kandro's arm and her blue eyes looked up at him. She gave him a "trust me" glance. Pivoting back around her heel, she met the hard stances of Drokira and Ralea. "The kett are starting to overrun Eos so we cannot guarantee your safety. Too many of our own people have been lost."

Drokira chortled, "We can take our chances against them."

"Believe me. You don't want to mess around with those guys. They are a pain in the ass and harder to beat than you think." Drack finally spoke up.

"About time….," Celeste playfully rolled her eyes at him.

"Come on, Krogan. What are they paying you?" Drokira bantered.

"Nothing," Drack flatly replied. His yellow tinted eyes squaring them off. "This isn't Omega, four-eyes. Think you're tough because you were with the Talons? Hah! Think again." Celeste grimaced. So much for diplomacy…

"Back off or I'll-," The other snarled.

"You do what? Hurt me? I killed a maw that ate guys like you for a snack." The old reptilian alien shook his head. "Let's just let them go, Ryder. I survived for a while. They can too. Just hope the kett don't exalt you."

"What the hell are you ramblin' out about, old fool? Just stop with the damn riddles!" Ralea hissed. He slapped his friend's arm to get his attention. "Let's just leave. We can find our own way out."

Lexi grabbed at their harms to halt them. "Ryder!"

Celeste knew she lost this negotiation. Maybe time on Eos is just what they needed. They would have to be patient and let the batarians see first-hand what awaited them. She just hoped this gambled time would not cost her lives of their colonists. "I hope you change your minds. I'll have a shuttle prepare to take you down to Eos."

Kandros barely moved his mandible as he bore his eyes deep into her. "You three escort them and get the shuttle ready," The order was barked out.

Drokira gave Celeste one last look before following the team out. She winced as moved her focus back to the troubled turian in front of her. She could tell he was fuming. His fists were clenched, he looked at her as if she just signed a deal with the Archon himself. "I trusted you….." His words were cracking. "Those supplies should be going to the colony. What will we tell Prodromus? That now they have to worry about batarians raiding them?"

"If you don't like this then you talk to Tann about it," Ryder had enough. She hated to get involve with station issues, but her heart went up against her at every turn. Her mother was the same type of woman. Another reason why she didn't think she should have followed in her dad's footsteps as the next Pathfinder. The title clearly did not suit her. She knew that he would have not chanced the idea of letting a known hostile race free. There was always another way. Tiran Kandros proposed the ludicrous suggestion to integrate them into Apex. She was going to make sure to hold this over his head. "Kandros, you recommended this idea to me and I wanted to do everything I could to help you out. I can still make this work. You just have to give me more time. I'll contact Bradley. I trust these two."

"Do you?" He raised an eye ridge. "They are pirates and Talons. More of them are coming over on the Quarian ark. We need to get the kett under control before that happens. I already have my men spread thin as it is. Skirmishes with the scavengers is not helping either."

Celeste sighed hard as she watched him leave the ark. "That went well," She smiled wryly at Drack.

"Could have gone better." The krogan shrugged.

"Enlighten me."

"You could have had two dead batarians."

"I'm afraid that is what is going to happen…." Her voice trailed off as she headed out the ark herself with her teammate in tow. She never really wished harm on anyone. Her good nature once again got the best of her. Now she was off to visit her brother with mind swirling in a maelstrom of "what-if's."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."


	4. Chapter 4

Backroom Deal

Part 4

Wiping the sweat off his brow, Drokira grunted as he lowered the last filled packed crate of parts in their makeshift storage room. It had been two days since they were dropped off to Site 1 on Eos by the Initiative. The unused outpost was in shambles. The buildings were worn by sand corrosion and the place still smelled of dead bodies despite none being around. With their arrival were rations of food enough to allow them a week, probably three if they cut them.

Ralea walked in with a dead bloodied insect that was about the size of a varren pup. "Found food."

Drokira twitched his nose. "What the hell is that?"

The other gave a shrug. "It tried to attack me out there on the plains while I was surveying the area."

"I'm not eating that. Not until the rations run out. Probably tastes like krogan spit."

"Will be soon. You know they left us here to die, right?" Ralea threw the corpse out of the building back into the sweltering heat.

"They said there was a new site in the area. We can take this salvage and see what else we can get. Found a rover with a signs of battle, but still can run." Drokira patted the crate with his four fingered hand.

Ralea eagerly strained his head to look out the door to see their latest discovery. "We have a few hours before sun down. Let's see if we can find their outpost. I'm done with this shit."

The engine clunked along as the medium size vehicle ran over the gritty ground. The slight breeze brought some relief from the heat. Ralea noticed a blip coming up on their screen. "We got something up ahead."

Drokira looked up in the same direction as the blip and saw an unknown dark green colored transport vehicle and several unidentifiable beings scrambling. "Could be trouble…" He narrowed all four of his eyes and reached out to take hold of his Carnifex pistol. Ralea followed suit.

Ralea proceeded to slow their vehicle down. He nervously glanced over at his friend. "Hostile?" He couldn't make out who they were.

"Not humans, that's for sure…" Drokira checked his clip to make sure it was full. Luckily, the Initiative did supply with them weapons. Pistols with six clips each. Another issue he would have to rectify down the road.

"Fuck!" Ralea heard the sound of artillery fire and slammed on the brakes. Pings were coming off the vehicle's armor. He pushed himself down further in the seat to avoid being struck. His body cramming down between the console and the seat. "Definitely not friendly!"

Drokira reacted quickly and jumped down to the side of the rover and hurried to the back for cover. He leaned up and began firing back, but the range on the pistol was not much compared to the assault rifles these guys definitely were using. "Get your ass back here!"

Ralea wiggled back out from his spot and jumped to join him. A round just buzzing past his head. He winced. "Shit that was close. What the fuck are they?"

The hostiles were running towards them. Their forms were bipedal and their bodies were solid and rigid. Whatever language they spoke was definitely not from the Milky Way. Drokira aimed his pistol and picked off one to the right by hitting him square in the head. Green brain matter splattered out before the body collapsed. The batarian's jaw dropped as he witnessed it. "Just kill them!"

Ralea raised his carnifex and opened fire. The rounds struck their target square in the chest. The other three were in on them within seconds. Their opponents snarled and yelled at them in their alien tongue. Their weapons poised at the two batarians. The alien in the front motioned ahead towards their own transport with the tip of his rifle. Ralea glanced over at Drokira. "They want to take us prisoner."

"I know that!" Drokira snapped viciously in frustration. They had to get out of this! He noticed the aliens bewildered expressions. Obviously, they couldn't understand them either! This could be advantageous. He looked over at Ralea. "The one on the right is yours. I'll grab this ugly bastard's gun and use it to take out it and the other one. Just wait for my signal."

The commanding alien was becoming impatient at the delay. It slapped Drokira violently to the side of the head with a loud thwap! The strike dazed him. He was not prepared for it. The alien shouted heatedly at him again to follow the command. Feeling his head now throbbing, Drokira gritted his teeth. Plans had to be changed. He wouldn't rid himself of his weapon. These guys definitely meant business. He just hoped that Ralea followed his lead. Motioning that he was going to surrender, he extended his hand slowly to the enemy with weapon in hand. This made the commander loosen his guard. The other two kept their focus on Ralea who was still very well armed. When it went to take the pistol, Drokira recoiled fast and shot. There was no time to really aim. It had to be quick. He then moved his hand to the left and shot the other. Ralea followed his lead and opened fire on the second. The one in the front was killed instantly as the ammo struck him in the center of the head. Some of his blood and brain matter actually splattered onto Drokira 's clothes. The one on the left was still alive. It groaned as blood oozed from its mouth. A gaping hole was to the left side of its torso. Damnit! The shot was not fatal! Ralea noticed this and fired again, this time hitting it in the right torso. A lethal kill. Now before them were three dead aliens. Their putrid smell was filling the air.

Allowing himself to breath, Drokira smile wryly at his friend. "Like walking in Omega."

Ralea grunted and bent down to collect their prized new weapons. "Smell like Vorcha shit."

Drokira started to walk towards the alien's transport. "Must be those damn 'kett' they were telling us about. Not so tough."

"What are we going to do with that?" Ralea referring to the transport as he carried the weapons back to their own rover.

The kett transport had a thicker armor to it than their rover and had couple of ammo packs. The technology was alien to Drokira so there was no way he would be able to figure out how to drive it right away. The kett they took out could have been scouts and now with them killed, it would alert the others to their location. Site 1 could be compromised. After talking with the Pathfinder, Site 1 was attacked before by the kett. The enemy believed it was deserted. Now they will know it wasn't. They had to get to the new outpost, Prodromus. "Strip what we can for salvage and get the hell out of here."

Ralea made a face and walked back over to the kett. "Left our food supply back at the outpost."

Drokira started to pull off a panel. He felt the muscles in his arm tighten from the strain. Seconds later, the sheet cover came off and he eyed the wiring components inside. "They have any meat on 'em?"

The batarian's face twisted with disgust. "You have to be joking." Now he felt sick.

Eos' sun was falling towards the horizon. It felt like two hours since they left their outpost. Drokira's stomach rumbled loudly, aching for food. Kett definitely was not going to be on menu. Without having a map, driving around in the dark would be complete suicidal and they could accidentally backtrack. Falling asleep outside was not an option. They didn't know what wildlife was out there that would be fond of dragging them off to their nest. Eyeing a structure up ahead, he redirected the rover to that direction. Friend or foe, they had to stop there and get their bearings. But who the hell would be out here other than more blasted kett?

Their rover's radio crackled to life. " _Before you come any fucking closer. Say who the hell you are_."

The sound of the man's voice was too low to be a salarian and not deep enough to be a krogan. Had to be a human. At least, they hoped it was. "Drokira Krec'donrek and Ralea Drackarok," Drokira identified themselves.

There was a pause. Then the man laughed loudly on the other end. " _Well, shit. I have to hear this story. I haven't seen you fuckers since I left the Milky Way. I'll let you inside. Warning though, I'm armed so don't try anything_."

Ralea rolled all four eyes. "Humans. Pathetic."

"Place to stay the night," Drokira reminded his friend. "Stay alert. This guy doesn't sound like he was from the other group." As the rover got closer to the Presson Dunes, the landscape revealed multiple towering structures that resembled some type of power generators. They were placed strategically in a row. The building that the voice came from was similar in architecture as the transport vehicle they raided. "This should be interesting."

A slim, athletically built bald man with a medium trimmed beard greeted them at the doorway. He was openingly armed to the teeth with a rifle and several pistols that were bolstered on his clothes. Peering inside, Drokira noted that stores of ammo were piled up and rations. This guy meant business. The human caught him looking. "No ideas, four-eyes. Think I can't handle the both of you? Hah!" He wasn't moving. "Just state your business and I'll decide if I should shoot you on the spot or not."

"Look, pal," Ralea's exhaustion from the long ride and lack of food was starting to hit him. "We found these damn aliens and now we don't have a place to stay the night. Just let us stay here."

A surprised grin crossed the man's face. "You fought the kett? So what? You some now goddamn big game hunters?"

"Look," Drokira refrained from snarling at the man. "We gave you our names. So who the hell are you?"

The bald head man's smile disappeared fast. He sized the batarian up in front of him. "The name is Bane Massani. Exile from the Nexus. Didn't see your type there." His brown eyes scanned the darkening horizon of Eos. "Get your asses inside. Don't want attention."

Ralea picked up on the name first as they entered and nudged Drokira hard in the ribs to get his attention. "Shit. Did you hear that?" They ran into a merc named Zaeed Massani years ago on Omega. He hit one of the smaller drink holes since Afterlife was not into their type. The one-eyed man was there to pick up on a bounty of some salarian that was wanted by a Volus for extortion. The salarian picked up protection from the Talons and they with a few others were there to get the merc to back off. In the end, the merc got what he wanted. The salarian was free game once word got back to the volus and he doubled the price for the Talons to set him up with Zaeed. Creds is what mattered on Omega. Whoever paid you the most was who you worked for. Didn't matter if someone got in on it first. If you couldn't match their offer, then you were dead meat.

"You related to Zaeed?" Drokira threw out the question.

"My father. Don't give two shits about him. He gave me his name and left. Some merc back in the Milky Way. Never really met the guy and glad I didn't." The inquiry seem to off balance Bane as he went over to the console to engage the security system. "Still haven't told me where you came from."

"The salarian ark. Stowed us away. Some deal that doesn't really seem to matter now." Drokira kept the reply short and sweet. They weren't here to make friends. Just find a place to get some rest before the rest of their journey to Prodromus.

This aroused a chuckle from the man. "I should have known it was the salarians. They are always bloody up to something." He tossed them a few ration packs from his crate. "Here you go. That should hold you. I'll let you stay here for a few hours but then you will have to leave. Don't want the company. Draws too much attention."

Ralea didn't hesitate tearing into one of the packs. His mouth dripped with saliva. The dry food was nothing compared to a fresh stick of meat on Omega, but there was always his imagination.

Celeste stood at the helm at the control. Her Sam implant enabled her to select their course and the ship's navigational system was to do the rest. Far advanced than any ship in the Milky Way. The Initiative spared no expense when it came to this project. Kallo waited at his station eagerly. The idea of voyaging to another cluster fascinated him. The galaxy map displayed different courses they could take. She knew that she received a message from Sloane that was urgent on Kadara, but her blue eyes came to rest on Eos. A part of her nagged to head back to Prodromus. She really hoped she didn't sentence the batarians to their deaths. "Something matter with the implant?" Suvi picked up on the hesitation. It was out of character for Celeste to be acting this way.

Celeste glanced back over with an embarrassed toothless smile. "So many places I can't choose."

"Oh!" Kallo's alert drew her attention. "You just received a vidcom alert from Foster Addison."

The call became alarming. Did something already happen to the colony? "I'll go check it out first." This was the breather she needed. A part of her wanted to remain in orbit around the Nexus until there was an update from Kandros.

Making a beeline straight to the conferencing room, she took the call. Seconds later the angry holo image of Addison's upper half was displayed. "Ryder. We need to talk." Her voice in flames. The same hostility was depicted from her first impression of the new human Pathfinder.

"What's the matter?"

"Tann told me about your little stunt on Eos. What in the hell are you doing out there? You are going to destroy everything we have accomplished so far."

Celeste felt her chest becoming tight with pressure. Just when she just thought Addison was starting to like her….she should have known that the tight lipped woman was all business. "Director," She took a breath.

"Batarians!" Her words cut her off sharply like a razor blade.

The pressure was becoming harder against her chest. "Director, the strike teams are losing against the kett on Eos. If we don't act now then Prodromus will be lost in the sand just like Promise and Resilience."

"They were not lost!" The short haired woman shot back defensively. "To save what resources and people we had left, we had to call everyone back."

"I was down there, remember? The facilities were lacking power and were pretty damaged." Ryder countered. "The batarians have been located to Promise. We need to give them time. We can't force their help. Look what happened with the krogan."

Foster shook her head. "That is not the same thing. You weren't here when the mutiny happened. You don't know-"

"You are right," Now was her time to interrupt. "I wasn't there when the mutiny happened. I have spoken with others who were."

"The exiles…" The tone in the other woman's voice indicated that the terminology was almost poisonous. "We couldn't let them just take over the ship. We had to get things under control."

"Look my job is to make sure to get the planets habitable. Right now, Eos is not as long as the kett threat continues. You don't know what's going on other than reports. I can't simply go by numbers and put the task back on someone else. Kandros has my support and he is monitoring the situation on Eos. If the batarians get out of hand-"

"Then we will have a damn nightmare." A beat. She sighed intentionally out loud. "Goddamn poetry. I can't simply look the other way on this one, on the other hand, you have proven yourself so far."

"Then trust me," Ryder emphasized the word. There was silence on the other end. She was expecting for Addison to simply hang up and then demand for her resignation. Maybe, Celeste did push the limit too far this time? No. They lost support of the krogan and she was still coaxing them to come back. That was to blame Tann and the others in charge. This was the right decision. She knew it in her heart.

"Three days, Ryder and then I want a full report." The call ended.

Celeste threw herself back down on the couch behind her. Her body and mind felt so exhausted. She rolled her shoulders back and looked up at the ceiling of the ship. "Dad, what am I doing wrong? Is this the right call? I wish you were here…"


	5. Chapter 5

Backroom Deal

Part 5

A kick to his left side startled Drokira out of his slumber. Reflexively, he reached out to his side arm, but a heavy boot pressed down on the weapon preventing him from lifting it up. He whipped his head upwards to confront his would be attacker to only see Bane smiling down to him. "It's dawn." He slowly lifted his boot and then backed away.

Drokira's body ached for more sleep and he shook his head to wake himself up more. "Hell of a wakeup call," he complained with a crack of his neck.

"My apologies. Next time I'll be gentler and then fluff your pillow before you go to bed." Sarcasm oozed from the man's lips.

Bane's wittiness was not very appealing to Drokira. He swore under his breath as he looked over at his friend who was still waking up. "Thought you said we could sleep here?" The other sat up.

"I did." Bane peered out the bunker's side window. Light was barely seen outside. "The sun's coming up. Grab your gear and get out. I fueled your rover up for you. Before you thank me, it's not a kind gesture. If you fuckers run out of gas out here you will draw more kett. I don't want that kind of attention. I like what I've got here."

"Any weapons you could spare?" Ralea looked around. Drokira watched him. He hoped his friend didn't push the issue. If this man was as armed as he put himself out to be, then an attack would be foolish.

"Aye, think I have rifles you can have. Old Initiative junk. Was just keeping them around for spare parts. They are bitches I can tell you that. Should be able to hold up until you get to Prodromus." Bane walked over to a container and pulled out pretty beat up assault rifles. Drokira wasn't going to complain. It was probably a lot better than their pistols.

"Why are you not there?" Ralea eyed him suspiciously as he checked out his new piece.

This made Bane chuckle. "I'd do better out here on my own than with them. Though the little duck can sure hold her own."

"Little Duck?" Drokira repeated the title carefully. Was the translation wrong? He knew that a duck was some earth animal. Small creature that resided in water. Not a threat at all.

"She came here weeks ago. Hell of a shot. Called herself the human pathfinder. She helped out taking some down kett generators. Put quite a dent in their operations here and gave me more territory. No complaints here."

"Her," Ralea grunted over to his friend. The reference was to Celeste Ryder. The red haired woman they met on the Nexus who argued for their freedom and tried her best to talk them into joining up with Kandros.

Drokira walked up to the window while Ralea talked and eyed his rover. He wanted to make sure this guy didn't take any of their stash while they were sleeping. His body ached for rest so bad that he was sloppy in just letting it sit out there. Bane caught onto what he was doing. "It's all there. I have plenty of salvage here. They may pay for mine though. Sorry, boys."

This made the batarian snarl, "What are you implying?" Typical human. Always think they could sell better than their kind.

Bane gave him another smirk and held up his hands playfully. "Easy. You will get creds from them I'm sure. Heard they wouldn't touch the old sites. Probably old wounds. When you are done with it, come here. I may have some work for you."

"Thanks, human. We might," Ralea was already out the door and heading to the rover. Drokira was on his heels. The lighter color batarian turned to look back up at Bane at the top of the steps. "Which way is it?"

"Go northwest until you come to a large structure. Once you are there, then head directly east and you will see the outpost. A shuttle heads out twice daily so you won't be able to miss it."

"What does the structure look like?" Drokira plopped down in the driver's seat and began to engage the nav controls.

Bane chuckled again. "Believe me, you won't be able to miss it."

Ralea slapped Drokira on the arm. "Let's just go."

As the rover took off, Drokira couldn't help but to look back at the sea of the kett power generators and the facility. He then shifted back around to look ahead. The horizon was slowly lightening up as daybreak approached. "Think he is truthful about the deal?"

Ralea yawned as he stretched his hands upwards. "I never did trust humans. I just told him that shit to get out of there. We were losing time as it was."

All they had to do according to the exile, Bane Massani, was head to northwest and come across a unique structure. Once they hit that, then go east and they will find the outpost easily. Just how easy would it be?

Hours later, Drokira was coming at wit's end. They were scouring the desert terrain of Eos and came across a few pestering insects. Their acid spray was a nuisance but the rover's wheels made quick work of them. "I bet he is laughing his ass off at us," Ralea spat as he wiped the sweat off his face. "It's fucking hot."

Drokira narrowed his brow. "Or he's waiting for us to die out here and come and take our stuff." Though his statement didn't make any sense. If Bane really wanted them dead, why did he just kill them in their sleep? Unless he was that psychotic. Just when he wanted to agree with his friend and turn the rover around to confront Bane, an image up ahead caught all four of his eyes. At first, he thought maybe it was a mirage but as the vehicle got closer, he realized it wasn't. A large dark superstructure just crest one of the peaks. It had to be what Bane said! It was massive! He elbowed Ralea sharply.

"What the hell was that for?" His friend hissed threateningly through his teeth.

"That has to be it!" With hope in the distance, he punched the throttle and tore the vehicle through the terrain. The rover jumped a rock and took some air. Then it crashed down with a violent thud making all of its passengers bounce. "Now we are talking!" Drokira laughed in delight.

"I bet we can find some salvage there! Look at that thing!" Ralea's eyes lingered on the monolith. He maneuvered to the back of the rover to dig through the equipment to see what they had to work with. Any delay could make it nightfall before they hit Prodromus but the extra creds was definitely worth it. The shadow encompassed the rover as it slowed its approached. Ralea looked over at his friend. "What's the matter?"

"Possible ambush spot." Drokira glanced around. The rover was down in a ravine with high walls on each side. Perfect location if the kett were planning on anything or anyone else for that matter. He figured that Bane was not the only crazy guy out in the heat. There was a pass through some rocks that was tight and twisty but doable. It would lead them to the base of the monolith. "We leave the rover here."

"What about our stuff?" Ralea shook his head. "One of us should stay here."

Drokira gritted his teeth as he eyed the monolith structure. He had no idea what to expect, but Ralea had a point. They already risked losing everything they had one time. He wasn't going to make the same mistake again. Shoving a pistol in his holster, he picked up the rifle and made sure he had a few fresh clips. "Don't leave me." He grabbed a sack and took off for the pass. The rock's sharp edges pressed up against his clothes as he moved through. Though the area did provide some shade relief from the bearing down sun. The base of the monolith revealed a circular shape platform with a console on one end. The design was foreign to him. Setting his sack down slowly on the dirt, he stepped up on the platform, transfixed by the console. "What the hell is this?" The alien tech had no sign of interface capabilities. His hand rested on the solid top and he crouched down on his knees to examine the base. "There has to be a lever or something, damnit…." Just as he was about to stand up, he heard mechanized clatter behind him. He turned around to see a few bots hovering the opposite side of the structure. He stumbled back and gripped his rifle tighter. "Stupid machines." He let out a breath and felt his heart racing rapidly in his chest. With their scanning the tech, he figured they were some type of drone and not hostile. Ignoring them, he returned to his task and then looked up at the obelisk. Rummaging through the sac, he took out a drill and moved over to one of the looming towers near the platform. He would have to severe pieces for examination for now. Just as he was about to drill into the material, he heard alarming screech come from the two bots. The pair's oculist turned red and they were now redirecting their focus on him. "Shit!" He dropped the tool and fumbled to pick up his rifle. The observer bot fired its red laser and it singed the side of his hand just as he grabbed his weapon. Luckily for him, the laser's hit was just inches away from the side of his left hand and it only left a small burn mark on his flesh. The mark still hurt like hell. Groaning through the pain, he grabbed his weapon and rolled to take cover. The Remnant bots were on him within seconds. He opened fire and nailed the first one right in the center of its red eye. The hits fried its circuits and it collapsed down. Drokira ducked as the second opened fire back at him. He darted towards the console and dove behind it. He had to take cover somewhere else. "Ralea! I need help!"

Ralea was almost asleep in the rover when the sound of gunfire made him fall out of his seat. He stumbled to get up and grabbed his rifle. The firefight seemed to be coming from the structure's direction. The same place that Drokira went off to. He dove out of the rover and moved towards the pass. Just as he did, he felt a scorching burn strike the back of his right leg. The jolt of the hit caused his body to thrust forward into the rocky formation and then he stumbled down onto his good leg. The hit torn opened his flesh revealing muscle with blood gorging out. Wincing, he turned back around to see a group of six kett soldiers moving in. The group spoke some foreign tongue to one another as they approached with their weapons drawn. "Hell-"Ralea growled as he moved to get his weapon at them. His eyes darted to look for cover but the only place he had was the same passage that Drokira went and that would expose him to be struck. It was too tight for him to move and try to counter attack. Lifting the rifle up, he used the scope quickly and took a shot. The round pierced through the torso of one of the approaching kett. The others howled in rage. One returned fire and the blast got Ralea in the right shoulder. He immediately lost the grip in his hand and his rifle fell to the ground. Blood covered all over the clothes from the wound and he clutched it tightly with his left to try to suppress it. "Fuck!" He spat out as he felt his body trying to go into shock. Sweat beaded all over his brow. "Drokira! Get your ass here!"

Hearing his companion, Drokira took down the last observer bot and leaped over the console to head back the way he came. He came face to face with the horror of his suspicion. The kett did ambush them! Ralea was severely injured on the ground and the batarian desperately reached down with his blood covered left hand to get his pistol. The blood caused him to have a loose grip and he struggled to hold it properly. The kett were pinning him down; almost stalking him like a varren to his prey. What were they waiting for? Then it dawned on him! They were going to try to capture Ralea to take him alive. But what for purpose? Drokira didn't want to find out! He pulled the trigger and a blast of rounds struck another kett on the right. The ammo turned its body into a pulpy mess before it collapsed. The others turned their attention to him and opened fire. Drokira dove behind a rock and ejected the hot clip. Snapping in another, he pivoted to his left and picked off another. Ducking, he avoided the counter blast and then moved over to his right to check on his friend that laid there still in the open. Ralea was sitting with his head back against the rock. The loss of blood was becoming too overwhelming. He wouldn't last much longer.

"Do you like it?" Jaal held up the prized dagger in his hand for Celeste to examine. It had several serrated sides and the handle contained mulitple gems that were not native to the Milky Way.

"Jaal…." Celeste gingerly touched the gems with her fingertips. She never seen such a piece before. She began to wonder where he found the time to design such a thing with all their travels to Kadara and Eladeen lately. "I-I don't know what to say." The assumed gift brought her out of her stupor. She had been troubled still after speaking with Addison and the nagging inside tormented her.

A smile came across the angaran's face. "Then you approve." He delicately placed the knife down into box. "It is a ceremonial dagger. Mostly used as a gift on special occasions between friends and family. Years ago one of my brothers gave me one when I came of age. Of course, each design is different to the creator."

The gesture warmed her heart from his words. How did she get so lucky in finding such a being to love her and cherish her the way he did? In all her years on the Citadel and interacting with other races, she never would have guessed that she would have a relationship with one. The thought never particularly crossed her mind. And yet, she felt lost without Jaal being around. He made adapting to what already transpired in Andromeda easier. She leaned up on the balls of her feet and nestled her head on his shoulder. Gently planting a kiss on his face, she looked down at the knife before his hands. "Do the angaran name their weapons?"

"We do. Sometimes. Though I thought I would let Drack have that honor."

Celeste tilted her head in confusion. "Why Drack?"

Jaal chuckled and gently kissed her as he turned back around, clasping her hands with his. "My Darling One, it would be rude of me to name a gift for a friend." A pause. "Unless that's a custom in your galaxy. Then I may offend him…"

The air from Ryder deflated. How foolish of her! Of course he was making a dagger for Drack. He mentioned it earlier! But it had been months ago when he first came aboard the Tempest so that the conversation eluded her. Groaning softly, she moved away from him and felt her entire face grow red. "Way to go Celeste. You idiot," She fussed under her breath.

"You alright?" The angaran squeezed her hand lightly with concern.

"Yeah…." Celeste sighed deeply.

Jaal reached out and cupped her face softly. "If I've hurt you in some way…."

"No…" She murmured with a smile and kissed his hand. "I just have a lot on me right now. I feel like lately I'm just making wrong decisions and other people are going to pay for it." She slumped back against the wall and crossed her arms in frustration. Her mind brooding away.

Jaal shook his head as he moved closer to her. "Darling One, you are a great leader. The Moshae speaks highly about your deeds to her students on Aya. I have learned by being on the Resistance that everyone will not approve of each decision you make. You stay by it. Do not falter." He took his finger and gently touched the center of her forehead. "Just stay clear."

"Strike Team Thessia is on the move. We are ETA twenty minutes from our target. Will report once mission is complete." Sergeant Shassa pulled up her omni as she communicated the message back to Tiran Kandros on the Nexus.

" _Good hunting, Thessia. I have your location marked_."

The purple asari huntress turned back to address her small militia that composed of two salarian infiltrators and a human adept. "Listen up. Kett activity has increased and within proximity of the Prodromus' perimeter. We need to shut it down." The others nodded in acknowledgment. After arriving on the ark, Shassa immediately reported to Kandros for her assignment. As a huntress, she was given the task to lead one of the strike teams. First there was Metirn, a female salarian infiltrator, who had a pretty good eye on her and probably the best shot of the team. Then there was Zibal. He talked fast. Faster than most salarians she encountered but his strategic planning was off the chart. Finally, there was Johnson. A dash young brown haired kid straight out of Alliance Academy. Reckless and quite the flirt. His behavior sometimes got them into hot water in prior missions but when they were pinned, he always found a way to get them out. That's why she kept them on the team. Nothing like a wild card in the deck.

"Shit! Did you hear that?" Johnson turned his head to the sound of heavy gunfire to the West.

"Four clicks away, sir!" Zibal brought up his omni tool and his fingers danced over the controls.

"I didn't think Prodromus had any military forces established yet?" Metirn looked back at the outpost.

Shassa also looked back at the site. The kett she was told about were lurking around much closer. She didn't want to leave the outpost exposed for too long…She chewed her lip and listened carefully. The gunfire sounded like both sides so it couldn't be the Remnant. Whoever it was, they couldn't leave them unaided. "We investigate and if it's not ours then we quickly double back. Do not engage. Is that understood?" The others nodded their heads to the order. She really didn't feel like a jog in the heat.

Being the first to arrive, Zibal panted for breath and brought up his omni. He stood over the ledge that overlooked the ravine below that housed the firefight. He began to scan each form.

Shassa was at his side and strained her head to see below. She took out binoculars and zoomed in as far as she could. The main force were definitely the kett but whoever they were attacking seemed to be pinned down in the rocks just outside the monolith. "Zibal?"

"Kett, sir. Three deceased…no four. Two left." He moved around Metirn and Johnson just as they arrived to get the others. "I…this can't be right." His eyes became larger.

"What is it, Zibal?" Metirn noticed her squadmate's expression.

"Scans are showing that there are batarians down there!" The salarian's voice filled with alarm and surprise.

"Run diagnostics and try the scan again," Shassa grumbled. "No batarians are here."

"The sun fried our gear this fast? Damn," Johnson muttered as he knelt down and held his sniper rifle down to take aim at the kett. "I have them in my sights. Orders?"

"Wait," Shassa held up her hand as she looked back at Zibal. "We don't want to engage until we assess the situation. I'm not putting our lives at risk for some exiles."

"Diagnostics done and scan completing…now." Zibal retracted his omni. "Definitely batarians, sir. One's vitals are dropping and one seems to be holding his own."

The report baffled Shassa. She pulled out her own omni and connected to Apex headquarters on the Nexus. "We have a situation down here."

" _Go ahead_."

"We picked up an ongoing firefight four klicks away. Scans show two batarians fighting against some kett. One is severely wounded. Request to engage." Silence answered her on the other end. Afraid she lost connection, she spoke again, "I repeat. Requesting to engage. I need that order." She exchanged worrisome looks with the others. If they lingered any longer, then the batarians would surely fall to the kett forces below. She would have to make the call herself….

" _Engage the kett and get those batarians to safety. I want a complete evac. I'll meet you on Prodromus_." The answer baffled the asari huntress. Never before had Kandros himself go to Eos for any mission. Something big had to be going on in the background and it had something to do with these batarians. That would have to be addressed another day. The order was given. "Engage the kett. Johnson snipe what you can get. Zibal, get to the batarians and start to render aid protocol. Metirn, you on me."

"By your side." Metirn followed the asari's lead as they scrambled down the rock. Unleashing a singularity attack, Shassa caught one kett off guard and the dark energy lifted it up in the air. That made an easy target for Johnson to pick off above.

The other Kett whipped around and opened fire on them. Metirn used an incineration attack. The fire distracted it and Shassa opened fire with warp ammo. Their combo attack made the kett explode into several disgusting pieces. "Check those four!" Shassa ordered Metirn as she moved around with her rifle still poised. They couldn't lower their defenses just yet. Though she knew Johnson had their back.

Zibal moved over to the injured batarian who was too much in shock to address him. "Hang on." He began to scan him with his omni to assess his injuries.

"Stay back!" Drokira had watched the early display and was grateful for the assist, but now he didn't want to have to fight against some potential pirates. He held his pistol towards the green skinned salarian.

"Your friend is going to die if we don't get him a medic evac," Shassa fiercely said as she walked up to him.

"I don't know who the fuck you are."

"We are from Apex. Strike team to assist the Initiative. We were dispatched on Eos to engage the kett and keep our outpost safe. What's your business on Eos?"

"We were sent here by your Initiative," Drokira spat with disdain. "Left us to rot. We were scavenging this site until we were ambushed by them and some bots up top."

"Remnant." Metirn came over to the group. "They are native to this planet too. The monoliths are their technology and they protect it."

"Sir! We are going to lose this one if we don't hurry."

"I'll call the medic evac!" Metirn took out her omni.

"Done already," Zibal quickly stopped her. "Enroute and should be here in a minute."

"Good thinking, Zibal." Shassa wiped the sweat off her face. "Goddess, it's hot." She winced from the sun and then looked back at Drokira. "Sergeant Shassa." She held out her hand, but he remained guarded. "I need you to come with us to Prodromus."

"I have salvage to transport too." Drokira motioned with his head towards the still in-tact rover.

"Medic evac is limited in space. We are not a cargo transport," Shassa shook her head as a shuttle was landing near their location. She motioned for Zibal and Metirn to take the injured on over.

"Then I'm not going. I can drive the rover." Drokira stubbornly moved away from the group back to his previous vehicle.

"I can't let that happen. I have been ordered to get you to Prodromus." Shassa felt her patience at the last end with this guy. "Your friend is dying. Whatever cargo you have-"

"Sir, I'll go with him," Johnson came up from behind. "I'll get him to Prodromus." He flashed a toothy smile at the batarian.

The asari rubbed her face in defeat. "Go. Straight there." She jumped on the transport and felt it lifting off immediately leaving Drokira and Johnson down below with the beat up rover and the dead kett. "She needed a serious talk with Kandros. Prodromus wasn't going to be happy to know that batarians were now in the mix. The one race besides the Geth that the Milky Way species really didn't want to deal with.

Johnson walked over to the rover and jumped into the passenger seat. "Let's hit the road."

Drokira grunted and eyed him cautiously as he joined him in the driver's seat. "Thought your kind didn't care for us." He grumbled as he fired up the rover's engine.

"Nah, you're cool. My dad was a cargo trader and one of his brokers was a batarian. Had some runs with Omega. Told me some pretty interesting tales about that place. Never got to go with him though. It was straight into the Alliance Academy. I've always wanted to see Omega."

"No you don't." The batarian rolled all four of his eyes. "It's a piss hole."


	6. Chapter 6

BACKROOM DEAL

Part 6

"I'll plug in the nav coordinates for the latest site of Roekkar activity into the Nomad, mam," Cora jogged ahead of Celeste over to their rover. Celeste couldn't help but to shake her head at the blonde. How could she run in this heat? She didn't know which was the most unbearable. Eos? Eladeen? Or Kadara? Once the Archon was taken care of and they had more of a foothold in the Helius Cluster, then she would get dibs on perhaps Havarl or even a temp place on Aya with Jaal. She just hoped her angaran lover wouldn't insist on Voeld.

Seeing August Bradley up ahead talking to one of the colonists, Celeste switched gears and moved towards him. Jaal, noticed the change and took her side. "Are we consulting with him prior to moving forward?"

"I need to follow up on something." Celeste kept watching Bradley and hoped he wouldn't walk away. She needed to see how things were going with the batarians. It had troubling her mind ever since the Nexus dispatched them there.

The leader of Prodromus caught her approach and waved. "Pathfinder, good to see you. I see you got my call about some trouble we have had recently."

"We are getting ready to do a check now."

"What can you tell us about the attacks?" Jaal chimed in. Celeste groaned inside. The next question for her was on the tip of her tongue. She politely bit it and held back to allow her friend address what concerns he had. After all that was the primary reason they were back.

"We don't have a militia yet," The man let that sentence sink in intentionally. Celeste picked up on it. They didn't have the resources or the manpower on the Nexus to focus both on military or science at the same time. They had to start somewhere. The Initiative was founded on science and exploration. She chose science to be the primary focus. At that time, they didn't encounter the angaran and she also didn't want to send the wrong message to any non-hostile alien races. She didn't want them to think that they had the intentions of settling the cluster by force. "But I do what I can. We have made a lead way so far. The colony is coming into place and the Apex team has helped out against any kett aggression. The Roekkar are a different matter. A survey team was ambushed just a mile outside Prodromus." He lowered his head with a hard sigh. "Only one made it back…I have had trouble writing the report to Director Tann. He had taken great interest in the status of the outpost once we landed here."

"Ryder, Akksul is playing a dangerous game. We cannot let him continue these aggressive attacks," Jaal whirled around to look at her. "We need to stop him before he gets more forces here. He doesn't feel threatened with the Resistance not in place." A pause. "I could get Evfra to send some of our troops here."

"I think we need to assess the situation first before we contact the Resistance," Celeste disagreed. "This may be what Akksul wants. He could be doing a rope a dope."

The angaran was puzzled. "A rope a dope? I…don't understand."

Bradley chuckled with amusement. "A fellow boxer fan I see?"

Celeste flushed. "My brother use to watch vids and made me watch with him."

"She means that this Akksul guy may want us to think something but does something else." The mayor explained.

"I see…" Jaal still seemed confused. "So what do you think he's doing?"

"He may want us to react just the way you stated, Jaal. If we pull forces, then he will gain ground on other planets. We cannot give ground free to the kett. Let's scout the area and see what we come up with and then go from there." She replied to him reassuringly. Making sure there were no more discussions, she decided to change course to her next topic of interest. "Two batarians were sent here from the Nexus. Have any of your people run into them? They were going to be dropped at Site 1."

"That's interesting that you brought that up." August motioned for the pair to follow him as he led them into a nearby building. He navigated through the busy workers until he reached the end that was setup to be some sort of infirmary. A wounded batarian with dressings was laying on a cot. He was hooked up to several terminals and a medic was standing nearby analyzing the data with her omni-tool. The tanned skin slim woman turned around to greet them with a warm smile.

"Bradley, good to see you." The woman appeared to be in her thirties with dark hair in a bun and she had brown eyes.

"Dr. Tellui, this is Celeste Ryder. The Human Pathfinder."

Celeste reached out to shake her hand. "Good to meet you, doc. How is he?"

"Doing better. Had quite the bit of trauma, but nothing that modern medicine can now fix. After a few more days of monitoring, I think he will be ready for discharge."

Celeste peered around her shoulder to see the batarian laying comfortingly on the cot with his eyes closed. "Is he able to talk to us yet?"

"No damage to the vocal chords, but he's really not saying a word much to us."

"The other one was here to drop off some salvage they collected. I gave him his creds and offered a place to stay. Everyone needs to stick together on Eos, but he declined the offer. Damn shame. I need someone like him." Bradley moved around to where the batarian was. "How are you feeling today?"

Ralea's eyes opened up slowly to see all of them in his room. "Still hurt like hell," He grunted. "Got any more of that medigel?"

"I'm trying to wean him off that," Dr. Tellui explained as she hurried over to a cabinet to retrieve the item for him. "I don't like my patients using that too much. It can cause negative effects."

"What happened?" Celeste crouched down to look at him.

"Attacked by the kett. We were near some ancient structure and they ambushed me while I was watching the rover." He groaned loudly as he tried to sit up.

"Easy," The doc was at the bed within seconds to stop him. "Any sudden movements may cause a flare-up. Once they are gone, I'll apply more medigel so you can rest."

"I just want out of here. Where the hell is Drokira?"

"Your friend I assume?" Bradley crossed his arms. "He left about a day after you arrived."

Ralea's eyes went wide with shock and then narrowed sharply with anger. "Bastard. Figured he would turn his back on me now that I'm dead weight to him."

"You can stay here." August countered.

The batarian scoffed. "Humans don't want me here."

"I have the final say. They will adapt. I can find work for you. You held your own better than some of our teams against the kett. I definitely need you."

Celeste smiled warmly at him. "See? You have a place here." Her mind trickled back to the earlier comment about his friend. What loyalty was there? The thought angered her after recalling her encounter with them both. Drokira was more of the talker. She thought she could trust him.

Dr. Tellui shook her head. "As his physician, I cannot allow any physical exertion. Combat is out of the picture for a long time."

The statement made Ralea stiffen up. The order really didn't sit well for him. "Am I done now?"

Bradley shrugged at Celeste; allowing her to make the call. Standing back up, she turned back to Jaal who was waiting at the door. "Let's head out."

"So he just left his friend? Just like that?" Jaal was bewildered to what transpired moments ago. "How could he do that?"

The idea still nagged Celeste as she walked beside him. "I guess I was wrong…" Suddenly, movement near one of the peaks caught her eye. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked up to try to get more of a glimpse. The distance made it difficult to make out their form, but their shape doesn't really human… Without giving Jaal notice, she broke out in a quick sprint out to the rover.

"Ryder?!" Jaal called out after him as he jogged behind.

"Get in!" She shouted and slammed down into the driver's seat. Her fingers working quickly over the controls. The Nomad's engines came online.

Cora was also perplexed by her commander's sudden change. Silently, she restrained herself. "I did all the checks, mam. We are set to get to that nav point."

Celeste's reached out and unexpectedly changed the navigational waypoint. "Change of plans."

"What?"

Before giving time for Jaal to buckle in, Celeste engage the thrusters and the Nomad shot off startling everyone nearby. The jolt threw Jaal up against the driver seat and he stumbled to hang on as the vehicle bounced along over the terrain. "Where are we going?!" His voice bumbling around with his body.

Cora gripped her seat but remained tight lip. She knew after working with asari huntresses that sometimes it was best not to question your commander. She did eye Celeste worriedly. There was a look of determination in the red head's blue eyes. Something really did spook her.

Ignoring the question, Celeste kept her eyes transfixed on the blip on the screen. Watching eagerly as they got closer. She couldn't lose this person. She had to approach tactfully. Pretty much familiar with the layout of the land, she would head in the opposite direction and not make a beeline. She would circle around the ridge and come up from behind. The terrain there had a slight incline so the rover would not have no problems with its overdrive. The ridge just passed! She jerked the rover hard to the right and continued the path. Jaal managed to buckle himself right before the turn was made. He grunted. "Do all you humans drive like this?"

"I don't," Cora spoke up defensively. She looked down at the screen. The layout showed no points of interest. Why was Ryder going here? "Mam, we are not near the site. Are we circling back to Prodromus?"

"Sort of." Celeste finally broke her quietness. "I thought I saw someone up here." She was almost there…

"Roekkar scout?" Jaal interjected.

Celeste slowed the rover down and jumped out first. The others followed unison with their guns drawn. Ryder held up her fist to motion them to halt and looked ahead. The figure was clearly there. His back appeared to be to him and no sign of awareness to their presence. The rover was pretty loud. Either this guy was oblivious or smug. Inching a few feet ahead of her team, she kept her blue eyes on the unknown. The body form definitely was not human, but it wasn't kett or angaran. "Sam, can you do a scan for me?" She whispered.

"One moment…" The AI dutifully answered. "Scan results reveal it is a batarian. Male. Age-"

"Just needed the species," Celeste said with a sigh of relief as she dropped her guard. It had to be their missing friend. She looked back at Jaal and Cora who were staring at her for direction. "Stay here." It would be more prudent for her to try to strike a conversation with this guy then the entire time. He left Prodromus for a reason. If he felt pressured then Kandros may lose their only hope to secure Eos from the kett. She had to get through to him.

Drokira was aware of his company, but did not flinch. His eyes staring below at the bustling forms of the colonists on Prodromus. He made camp at his present location since leaving. When they were first brought there, the colonists gave him uneasy looks and talked amongst themselves. He knew what they were thinking. He saw it time and time again on Omega and throughout his many travels in the Milky Way. There was no love loss for batarians. The feeling was pretty much mutual. Creds was the only reason for interaction. For the good or the bad. Depends on the work.

"Hi there," Celeste's cheerful voice came from behind. "Nice view isn't it?"

"What do you want, human?" Drokira kept his back to her.

"Your friend is doing better. Though I don't think he will be released to engage in anymore combat for a while." A beat. "He thinks you ditched him."

"Course he does," Drokira grunted as he took out a cig and lit it. The only pack he managed to smuggle to Andromeda. He cherished each one. Seeing her eyeball him, he offered the pack to her.

Celeste made a face. "No thanks."

Shrugging, he continued to puff on the cigarette. "Look, we are here for the business, human. When he gets out, we can split the creds. I'm holding his share. Not like there's places to really spend it out here."

"So you just going to back into hiding out here?"

"Salvage is good work for now. Till we get something better. You think your Initiative group has a better offer?"

"What about helping for the good? You have seen what the people of the Initiative are dealing with out here. Give Kandros a shot and join Apex. They could use your skills."

Drokira glanced back down at the outpost. "What about him?'

"Bradley has allowed him to stay if he wants. He can get some work there. Though he won't be safe if the kett and the remnant are not pushed back. You really going to let him die down there with the others?"

"So he's joining you?" Drokira scoffed and snuffed out the cig under his boot.

Celeste chewed her lip as he followed his gaze to Prodromus. "Not officially, but I think he will come around. He cannot survive out here with those injuries. Not until he's fully healed and that will take some time."

"Look, lady. We are not part of this Initiative. Just a backroom deal." Drokira shook his head as he leaned up against the rock formation behind him. "You know my past. I'm not a goody-goody."

"Forget the past. Everyone gets a fresh start here. You will get better ammo and weapons with Apex and you will get more creds with that than with salvage collecting."

The proposition was very tempting and even if he didn't want to show it, he had concerns for his friend, Ralea. Even if they were not blood brothers, he still cared for him. "Thought the Initiative was against the idea of having batarians on the team or so I've been told."

Celeste smirked big. "Think of it as a backroom deal with the Pathfinder."

The suggestion made Drokira chortle. "I may actually like you, human. I'm in."


End file.
